I can give a hefty list of French death metal bands that would clean annihilate most of their planet wide counterparts for sheer brutality and uncompromising ferocity. One look at the gore typeface used on the album’s title and on the cover art should give you some indication of what Necroverdose are going to sound like. Kicking off with a song called “The End” the tune conjures up images of old Cannibal Corpse and Morbid Angel with guttural vocal growls seemingly having no discernible lyrics I could make out, like John Tardy on the Obituary debut. Into “Fracture Atomic Supremacy” with a massive increase in pace and some Vital Remains like guitar hooks as the super heavy bass will set reverb within your humble abode with considerable damage accompanying it. There is nothing of surprise musically as Necroverdose prefer to batter the listener with an onslaught of bulldozing double kick and head smashing riffs that just plain pulverise for the sake of pulverising.

The mechanical battering has reminiscences of Krisiun possessing that robotic maniacal snare beat that hits like a murderous madman hellbent on a bloody rampage. “You’re Just Meat” is what you’d expect with each hammer blow beat raining down like a frenzied meat cleaver on the already bloody pulp of your very existence. Now the question begs as to whether this kind of bludgeoning violence can maintain enough riffing variety to engage the listener for 40 minutes plus. On the whole I think Necroverdose just about manage it though there are moments where my attention wandered due to the mechanized beating not entirely keeping me totally transfixed though it has a damn good attempt at it during “Resurrected”.

Noticeably in the last few years this style of death metal has been garnering more attention with the bands plainly preferring to beat the listener than tickle them to death with tremolo widdle and fret board acrobatics or bemuse them with weak breakdowns. Very like Rex Shachath, Three Hour Ceasfire, Zombified, Paganizer to name a few this sits very much at the top of my brutal death metal top albums this year, though not quite breaking the top ten for me.

(7.5/10 Martin Harris)

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